Unfortunately, many people experience setbacks during recovery. This doesn’t mean it will happen to you, but if it does there are steps you can take to ensure a slip-up doesn’t completely derail your hard-won sobriety. Your first step is to remind yourself why you decided to begin recovery in the first place – and the many “good days” you have to look forward to in sobriety. Here are a few more tips to help you better handle any setbacks along the way:

• Take responsibility. Blaming someone else for your actions won’t make you feel better and it certainly won’t help you learn from your mistakes. Okay. It happened. Own up to it and get back to the hard work of recovery.
• Learn from the setback. A slip-up can be a sign that you need to do a better job at identifying your triggers, managing stress, developing healthy habits or devising a relapse strategy. View a setback as an opportunity to strengthen your stay-sober plan so it doesn’t happen again.
• Don’t beat yourself up. Again, it’s important to view a setback as a learning experience, not a failure. Don’t let this slip-up squash your self-esteem or hinder you from moving forward in your recovery.
• Seek support. Reach out to your counselor or a recovery peer to brainstorm why this happened and how you can prevent it from happening again. Consider attending an in-person or online support group so you can listen to real-life stories about how others have handled setbacks along the way.

Recovery Support At Segue The Segue ProgramTM has offered long-term aftercare support since 2012. Our proven approach pairs each resident with a certified peer recovery support specialist, who guides both the resident and their family through the challenges of early recovery. To learn more, call us today: 833-485-0789.